The overwhelming weight of opinion among baseball commentators this morning is that Bud Selig should step in, overturn Angel Hernandez’s bad call of the Adam Rosales non-home-run and force the Indians and A’s to reply the remainder of that game from that point, with the game tied.

Buster Olney, Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi, among many others are arguing that in columns and on Twitter. Olney’s reasoning is the general thinking:

The commissioner can change this, immediately.

There is precedent, of course, and George Brett knows all about this. In 1983, he hit a go-ahead home run against the Yankees, and the umpires called him out because they ruled he had too much pine tar on his bat. Upon further review of the call, American League president Lee MacPhail reversed that decision — which was the right thing to do — from the point of Brett’s home run, with the Royals leading 5-4.

I get the appeal of that argument. But to think that Major League Baseball will use that as “precedent” is to ignore the fact that overruling the pine tar call and replaying the game created no precedent whatsoever. That game was replayed, yes. But since then there have been hundreds — probably thousands — of clearly botched calls in baseball, and I can’t think of any other games that have been replayed following a Commissioner’s overturn of the calls. There may have been a couple. I seriously doubt there have been more than three, if that.

Which isn’t to say that replaying the game wouldn’t be the right thing. It certainly would be the fair thing. It would not, however, represent the upholding of precedent, as that word is understood among people who make decisions about important matters. To the contrary, the pine tar game and any other replayed game are the outliers. The exceptions to the rules. They’re the 1983 slip opinion from a lower court in a far flung jurisdiction which, however instructive, is not at all binding.

More relavent precedent? Major League Baseball’s ignoring blown calls as if it were required to do so, citing the “human element” and making some reference to “a can of worms,” shrugging its shoulders and hoping to God that one game’s outcome will not impact a playoff race. That’s like Supreme Court precedent for Bud Selig. And is exactly what will happen here, I wager.

No. I mean, it’s over, and it’s not the only bad call in the history of baseball and I’m pretty sure it’s not the only blown call in the history of replay. Replay hasn’t been foolproof in football, either.

At the same time, this umpiring crew needs to be hit with a sock full of quarters on repeat until they can see what was very plain last night watching zoomed-in replays on MLB Network. As you guys said earlier, accountability is the key here.

Agree. …and if umpires refuse to see the obvious even after whatever remediation, including the sock full of quarters treatment, then they should learn what an unemployment line is. Part of making a system foolproof is to eliminate the fools when necessary.

To those saying “you cant overturn a bad call, what about all the other bad calls” – In this case, its not actually a missed call, its an improperly reviewed replay of a missed call. Different circumstance to others.

The NFL. NBA and NHL all use modern technology to get certain calls right and it is time that baseball did. They should stop cowtowing to umpires that have oversized egos and create a better system for instant replay. Wouldn’t it be easier and probably quicker for MLB to have an NHL style “war room” that reviews home runs or balls that could be home runs and get the call right? Why not give each manager one replay review during a game on a close play or ball hit down the line to use each game? HDTV provides millions of fans to view better looks at plays. This dictates MLB coming up with a better system now, Hernandez and his crew are either stubborn, stupid, or both about that missed call last night.

It’s over johnnie.
Yeah MLB can restart the game. Sure, ok. Then we can go get the 1985 Cardinals and Royals and replay game 6 of the 85 World Series. Then we can get the 1996 Yankees, Orioles, Jeffrey Maier and replay game 1 of the 96 ALCS. Gee, the possibilities are endless.
Games over. Yeah, it sucks. Sucks real bad but it’s over. Let’s work on better umpiring and forget about replaying games.

If we are going to gt blown calls reversed, let’s start with the Gallaraga perfect game and go from there. As much as we all hate to see bad umpiring ruin good games, the rules and precedent don’t allow for reversals.

The real issue here is the quality of the umpires. Or lack thereof. There HAS to be a better system.

I was going to post the same reference. If they won’t overturn that hideous mistake when the umpire admitted he was wrong and even cried over how sorry he was, there is zero chance of this getting overturned.

And thing about the Gallaraga game is that you wouldn’t have to replay it. The game was over at that point. It’s about the only time I would be happy with a reversal (still steamed about reversing the pine tar game.)

Ah yes the pine tar game, but if you remember the whole story Nettles was the one who noticed it and Billy waited for an opportunity to bring it up. Either way the outcome really didn’t matter that one game wouldn’t have changed the season.

You know, the entire issue would be moot if they parks were built with actual fences that the ball goes over. You know, over the fence, a homerun, not over the fence ball in play.

As long as MLB lets them build stadiums with railings/walls/seats right above/behind/next to the fence, this will continue.

Move the seats and railings back at least 5 feet from any barrier and get rid of the yellow line, and you don’t have a problem. As long the defining line is left ambiguous, there will always be controversy. How come no one ever complains about that?

I agree the umpires blew the call, but if you guys would put as much effort into bitching about what the problem really is, you wouldn’t have to spend so much bitching about the umpires.

Does anyone really know what review the Hernandez Four actually saw? Were they given the zoomed in shot or only the one that looked like it was shot from up in a tree? If the former, then off with their heads. If the latter, then off with the replay person’s head.

Until we get some answers, I think we need to hold off swinging the executioner’s ax.

Or was the replay equipment even working? It seems so obvious that it was a home run that the most logical explanation is that the umpires were not able to access the replays so they let the call stand. That was my initial thought after seeing the play.

This whole “the game is over crap and …that’s part of the game” is a joke . We have technology … Use it correctly and for once clean up the officiating . How do we not know that this dude didn’t bet on the game ? His crew was too scared to over ride his call ? This old school unwritten bullshit is a joke ..ill take robots and cameras over a dude who became an ump cuz he wanted to get back at the players who had more talent than him any day.

Teams would have to play on from the point in question. If the call got overturned and the game was replayed on, it would start in the 9th tied at 4 with 2 outs. Teams can’t reuse pitchers from earlier in the game and so on. It would hypothetically be treated as a suspended game.

I’m going to say the same thing I said after the Galarraga fiasco: The only way I would support changes made by the Commissioner (especially this one) is if the umpires union petitioned him to make the change and he did so in deference to them. I doubt the union would do it, but if this became the rare practice, I think it would satisfy AND build confidence in the umpires doing the right thing in situations of gross error. I don’t think it should be a common practice for every blown call.

There is no way that The Crypt Keeper overturns this call because he upsets the umpires and sets a recent precedent. Why overturn this one and not McLelland’s blown call against the Mets in Miami? Or tonight’s inevitable blown call? Mets fan know that A. Hernandez should have been dismissed year’s ago. I’m glad that everyone else is finally catching on

“and I can’t think of any other games that have been replayed following a Commissioner’s overturn of the calls”

Google tells me there’s only been one game replayed, in 1986 because a game was called after a 17 minute and 21 minute rain delay, which is not the rule on calling games.

There needs to be an incorrect interpretation of a rule. The bad part of replays is that there is a chance there can be “inconclusive evidence.” In this case there appeared to be very conclusive evidence. But when Hernandez says he didn’t see anything conclusive, that’s the end of it. No incorrect rule interpretation. Had he said he saw conclusive evidence that the ball did not clear the fence then you can say there was an incorrect interpretation of *something*… I would be very very surprised if this was changed (Have they filed a protest yet?).

I’ve said it before: why in hell is there not a booth ump? Just an extra official to look at the TV broadcast itself. In under a minute all of us watching from home KNEW that was homer. Somehow, all of the on-field officials, who left the field to review the call in their “TV Room”, couldn’t see what we all saw. What’s more they took 10 minutes to ‘review’ and STILL got it totally wrong.

Its a couple of cell phones: one with the booth guy and one with the crew chief. That’s it. Anything questioned, they point to the booth like the home plate ump asking the base ump for the check swing and they have an answer in nothing flat. If there isn’t enough evidence to overrule, then its over right there.

The game will not be replayed. Egregious as that decision was, Angel Hernandez has been making appalling decisions, including balls and strikes calls, and getting away with it for years. As Craig pointed out yesterday, Selig’s job is to make money for the owners, and to the extent that the game is played a certain way and that calls are correct, all that is secondary.

That should not stop fans from howling about horrible umpiring, or having calls reviewed in a centralized booth. The volume of complaint will eventually force changes in umpiring, but only if the complaints rise consistently and in a prolonged way above the “noise level” of complaining about umps that goes on every day.

Angel Hernandez is a terrible umpire always was and always will be. MLB should overturn the blown call but after the Jim Joyce blunder that robbed a perfect game from Armando Galarraga why would they do the right thing here. Bud really needs to remember the game belongs to the fans and needs the fans to believe in the game. Blatantly bad call especially by a caustic umpire like Angel Hernandez shows the lack of passion for the game as well as the fans. Then again when has Bud really cared about the fans.

People keep saying there is no misapplication of the rules.
I thought the rule was: ball goes over fence = home run.
Here it was: ball goes over fence = double.
Hence, misapplication of the rule. (and I know they’re saying the ball didn’t go over the fence, but clearly it did, so effectively they are saying ball over fence = double)